Mike Tyson to make onstage debut with one-man show about himself

Washington, Mar 4 (ANI): Mike Tyson, who is ready for his close-up as a stage performer, will be starring in a one-man show about himself that is set to premiere with a six-night shakedown run next month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

'Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth-Live on Stage' will run April 13-18 in the 740-seat Hollywood Theatre, offering the man himself telling what it's like to have been feared, reviled and pitied in his career.

The director and co-writer, with Tyson's wife, Kiki, is an L.A.-based playwright Randy Johnson, creator of 'Elvis the Concert' and 'One Night With Janis Joplin'.

Tyson has already won acclaim for telling his own story on screen in 'Tyson', the 2009 documentary by James Toback.

In it, as Times film critic Kenneth Turan wrote, virtually the only voice heard was that of the fallen champ, "holding you spellbound with his thoughts on his past. The result is as gripping as a title fight and as mesmerizing as a conversation with a cobra. You may not be happy with everything said, but you will not be bored."

Johnson said on Friday that he avoided seeing 'Tyson', opting instead to spend many hours talking with his subject, then crafting a script and a sequence that he said will allow for a written question or two from the audience.

Video and live music will augment the evening.

"It's a theatre piece, not a lecture, but a real one-man show," LA Times quoted Johnson as saying.

Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion at age 20 in 1986, spent the next three years as one of the most feared and devastating forces ever to step in the ring, then was knocked out in early 1990 by Buster Douglas, a 40-1 underdog.

Next came a 1991-92 arrest and conviction for rape, followed by three years in prison.

Tyson's post-release comeback attempt turned into a pathetic joke in 1997 when, losing a bout to Evander Holyfield, he bit off a chunk of his foe's ear.

Lately he's been making celebrity rounds in a Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen and an Animal Planet show based on one of his childhood passions, raising pigeons. (ANI)

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